Vol. 52.] 



FKOM THE CKETACEOT7S OF THE LEBANON. 



233> 



Dr. Fraas refers to a specimen which he had seen at Beirut in the 

 collection of the He v. Prof. Lewis ; this showed the head of 

 a sepialite with its eight arms close together, and, as he says, 

 reminded him of the fossil forms from the Lias, figured and described 

 by Quenstedt. 



Dr. Fraas obtained a photograph of this ' sepialite ' from Prof. 

 Lewis, which was afterwards lent to Mr. G. C. Crick, F.G.S., who., 

 compared it with specimens obtained by the British Museum from 

 the late Prof. Lewis, and was happily able to identify by its aid the 

 original of Dr. Fraas's remarks. 1 



The specimen proves to be the head and arms of a decapod 

 cephalopod allied probably to Onychoteuthis, showing the eight 

 ordinary arms, but with only a faint trace preserved of one of the ; 

 long tentacular arms. 



The arms are close together and nearly straight, and are arranged 

 in pairs. First there is a pair of slender and short dorsal arms, then 

 two pairs of 



very stout and Plesioteuthis Fraasii, sp. nov.,from the Cretaceous 

 longer lateral of the Lebanon. 



arms, and, 

 lastly, another 

 pair of some- 

 what shorter 

 and more 

 slender ven- 

 tral arms. 



No suckers 

 are visible on 

 the arms, but 

 there are 

 traces of what 

 appear to be 

 hooklets and 

 serrations in 

 two or three 

 places, so that, 

 taken in con- 

 nexion with 

 the more rigid 

 carriage of 

 the arms and 

 their arrange- 

 ment in pairs, 

 we may feel 

 assured that 



this is not an octopod, like Calais, but a true Teuthid 2 and 

 probably related to Dorateuthis (see Geol. Mag. 1883, pi. i. p. 1). 



1 The photograph was marked in pencil Calais Newboldi. 



2 If a name be desired, I would suggest for this sepialite the name of 

 Plesioteuthis Fraasii, after the author of ' Aus dem Orient.' 



